One Man, Sixties Icon, Westerner, and Michelozzo, all share a rarity in common, being that they have all won a major, historic horse race in the British calendar over the past thirty years when it was run away from its rooted home venue.
In the case of the St Leger winners, Doncaster had undergone drainage repairs resulting in a false ground which was cited as the reason for a horse falling and bringing down two other in the Portland Handicap. The St Leger was postponed and transferred to Ayr when Michelozzo won with plenty to spare in testing ground.
In the case of Sixties Icon, a new stand was under construction at Town Moor and this time York was the benefactor. As the venue was when the present stand was built at Ascot and Westerner showed himself a much better than average Ascot Gold Cup winner.
As the alternative venues for the transferred St Legers were both left-handed and galloping you had to conclude that the temporary homes of the famous race had no bearing on the type of horse required for the test.
In the case of One Man, even though the grey would still have won the race at Kempton and indeed did so the following year, Sandown is a different kettle of fish and the race had a whole new feel to it. This even led to some people revelling at the prospect of the King George Chase being permanently run there when the Sunbury track was under threat of closure, a situation that for the time being has passed along.
Indeed there is a line of thinking that such a unique and fascinating venue like Sandown is wasted in the sense that its most famous National Hunt race formerly known as the Whitbread has declined markedly in recent years, the high class chasers having wider options to choose from in a spring programme crammed with rich pickings on both sides of the Irish Sea.
What irked traditionalists with the prospect of such a move was that while in comparison Kempton may be bland, it very much has its own requirements and demands and enables comparisons to be made on the same scale when discussing past champions with those of the present.
We are often told by trainers and jockeys that horses need to fully get the trip in the King George, which if true renders it inaccurate to describe Kempton as a venue where animals best at shorter trips have a chance of lasting home.
Mind you, Edredon Bleu's success did not support this professional view. It is also worth remembering that the headstrong top class Irish mare Analog's Daughter kept on gallantly while on empty to finish runner-up to Silver Buck in 1980. Moreover, Challenger Du Luc, Remittance Man and Bradbury Star were other animals who went close in the race, none of whom you would have expected to be in the mix at most other venues over the same trip.
The question of whether a racecourse has a right to 'own' a race in the sense that the ties between the racecourse and race create such a strong image that the race could never be the same staged elsewhere is an interesting one.
Over in France talk of whether the Prix de l' Arc de Triomphe should permanently alternate has been prevalent since two editions of the race were held at Chantilly while Longchamp was under modernisation.
But as we live in times were change happens fast, and where there have been more changes to the flat fixture list in the past twenty years than the previous fifty years, maybe we should at least consider what benefits such moves would bring.
The most fascinating area of the sport for rotating races in Great Britain would be in the National Hunt area. It would not work on the level. Using an extreme example, rotating the Epsom Derby would make it just another Group One. The race is part of the fabric of the sport and would not be the same run anywhere else. Owners, breeders, trainers, jockeys and traditional racing fans would not want any fancy rotations.
Jump racing is different. In the kingdom of staying top-class chasers, there is arguably no finer sight than one in a rhythm racing at Newbury. It's a spectacle that gives the race formerly known as the Hennessey a unique, stirring whir of its own.
Brown Chamberlin and Francome, hair down to the collar, the result looking ominous for their rivals from an early stage. Francome again on Burrough Hill Lad who was carrying twelve stone, one of the best performances on weights and measures since Arkle's day.
The marvelous One Man erupted duly on to the scene the day he won the Hennessey. Sunny Bay and Graham Bradley, a visually mouth-watering performance from a chaser who would be rated the best in the country but was never suited to Cheltenham.
Teeton Mill too, destroyed his opponents and followed up in the King George. Hard to believe that was twenty years ago as it feels all very modern. I wonder whether the mature generation were thinking the same about Mandarin winning the race when Captain Christy was beating Bula.
And more recently those two performances by Denman (pictured). Newbury was made for him despite winning and running well in four consecutive Cheltenham Gold Cups. And it's a race holding up well. Since Denman's second success three future Gold Cup winners won the race before taking the Blue Riband, not to mention Many Clouds one of the better Grand National winners of recent times.
Since the fourth day was added to the festival you feel it's a show that has been commercially moulded to please more people. More races, more Cheltenham heroes, a relentless hype machine building up to the meeting. That's not to say it does not still have many magical moments but the dilution has taken some of the edge off the show. And, it would seem, the expansion will continue with more new needless races made to please those able to pull strings.
The more that become increasingly frustrated by the path that the Festival has taken, the less there will be that would object to a rotation of festivals.
Just like in the Open Golf there would be a roster. Luck, of course, would play a massive part in the sense that when you had your potential Gold Cup winner at the peak of his career, the race may be at a venue that would not play to your charge's strengths.
What courses would be on the roster? Cheltenham of course, Newbury for it being the fairest test in the country, Sandown for being a right-hand track with a character of its own, Ascot, another for the right-handers, and perhaps Chepstow. Undulating like Cheltenham but with that long straight plus a tendency to produce ground on the testing side. Carvill's Hill would have had a field day in a Chepstow Gold Cup!
Nothing in the North could really be included. Haydock Park should not be entertained after destroying its old unique chase course, Wetherby was spoilt by the Government Compulsory Purchase order when the nearby A1 had an extra lane added, while Aintree has its own thriving festival despite its most famous event approaching a crossroads.
The Grand National course is a ghost of the original. They talk of further safety measures put into place at a time when the general public are less concerned about the welfare of racehorses that at any time in the last forty years. The course is backing itself into a wall and the time will come that they who promise they are striving for something near to a risk-free race will not be able to yield anymore.
All National Hunt racing carries a real degree of high risk and when the time inevitably comes when by ill fortune two, three or four horses will lose their lives in a Grand National they will not be able to justify its continuation. They would not be in this position if they had stood their ground in the first place.
And what of the Mildmay Course. People forget that the straight had a sloping elbow in it and that it was changed in 1989. Before the change was made a statement went out saying they wanted to make it more galloping like Newbury! The severity of the kink was removed, the sharpness is not as severe, but overall in nature it is still on the sharp side, perhaps the nearest to right-handed Kempton.
Aintree already has it's festival and no matter how much they tinker with the Grand National, even changing the name, the crowds will still flock, It's a true 'cult' course and racing fans or not, the place will continue to be packed out.
A rotating Cheltenham Festival should really be sacrilege in the mind of the long-term racing enthusiast, but as the remoulding of the traditional meeting has and continues to change its appearance so much, then maybe it is something that they would at least consider. How ironic would that be!
image taken by author
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